Batman

You hold your self to be the subject of experience (you identify as a witness that is separated from body and mind). But again, if yoh discard the labels "witness", "body" and "mind" from direct experience, is there really separation? Where do you find a witness in experiencing? What I am suggesting is that any subject/object duality that we tend to create is an illusion formed in the mind (me/not me, thinker/thought, witness/witnessed, doer/doing). This why self inquiry and questioning "who am I" or "who is the witness" are so helpful and direct in dissolving identity from consciousness.

I experienced insanity both on Psilocybin and LSD. It is an horrific experience, completely bizare, confusing and even terrifying. On the one hand, you can have epic insights and crazy experiences and on the other hand, nothing makes sense. It feels like the mind is dysfunctional, and that something really wierd is happening in the brain.

Yes, they can defenitely enhance dramatically skill and creativity. I also like to draw on LSD.

Who is witnessing the internal chatter? Can you find a "witness", or is it possible that the witness is just another thought? There is no "2nd voice". It is just another trickestery of thought, one that claims separation and observation of the alleged "1st voice". There is no real distinction between them, they are manifestation of the same thought process. Stay with the question "Who am I?" or "To whom thoughts arise?", but don't satisfy with a conceptual answer. The mind will try tricks to claim to answer this questions with thought, but be alert and return to the question "To whom this thought arise?". Gain clarity that a thought cannot perceive or think other thoughts. A thought is not conscious of anything. A thought is not aware. However, it has formed into an identity without even being one. Is the identity formed in thought conscious of any thing? Or is it just a mirage? Who is aware of the thought-based identity?

Legal or criminal aspects aside, dosing other without informing them and receiving their consent is the epitome of manipulation. Even if the intention is positive and somehow your experiment ended with good results, actually you completely missed the mark because you are trying to control others' experience by concealing, drugging and manipulating them. I would also suggest to dismiss all the conceptual fantasy world that is superimposed on reality, and which psychedelics like LSD and Psilocybin can easily cause them to seem as if they are real.

Phenomena, trees, sounds, light, perceptions, experience, world, existence - those are all concepts. What happens if you strip all the concepts? What remains? Hint: no words can touch "this".

You are just playing intellectual games with your self. This kinds of questions requires awakening, not a concept amusement park.

I twice did MDMA trips in social settings with an amount of about 0.240, which were insanely beautiful. It really opens the heart in a crazy way and melt the boundaries between everything. It shows you, in a sense, that the ego is constantly filtering love and connection. I believe that in under the right conditions (for example set, settings, dose) every mind altering substance may have healing aspect of emotional/energetic release or transformational effect on the conditionings of the mind. I think following a protocol can be great, but ultimately it is about what you feel and intuit. I would not over do it, like I would not over do any type of intensive experiences. They tend to take some energetic/emotional/physical toll, which should be tended to with rest, good nutrition, exercise. After such an intense experience you usually feel the draining effect of it, and that it is time for integration and stabilizing. Unfortunately, many seek the enjoyment of the experience again, and avoid following what is right for the body. I think there is a sub-reddit of mdma therapy. Consider looking it up.

Which is why it is important to be ready or grown enough before going on such a ride. Not all ego's can't stand such a direct and all encompassing experience of the truth. This can be very destabilizing if you are not ready, and your entire perspective of reality has shattered.

Yes, just to be more accurate - there is a realization there is no "you" in the first place who thinks or have a free will. This was all a construction of mind and language. The mind creates self-referential thoughts like "I thought this", "I did this", "I need to decide", etc. However, it can be seen that the "I" thought doesn't refer to any thing that really exist. It was pure illusion from the beginning. Indeed, when this is realized (by no particular identity), the over thinking tendencies get undermined because the illusion that motivated it (the existence of a separate entity that control thinking or life) has been dispelled.

You can't achieve no-mind, because any activity to achieve something is an activity of mind. It is a bit like trying to surrender forcefully, it is contradictory. The thinking process slows down or ceases when the identification with it weakens or ends. Sure, meditation can help and also what you eat has effect on the mind. But ultimately it is a matter of identification. Those who tend to over think are usually more identified as the one doing the thinking, so dissolving the thinker (which is about clearly seeing that the thinker is also a thought) can be a pointer towards ceasing to think.

There is no shtick. In psychedelic awakening you are forced to awaken because the substance hinders the mind or opens the senses in a way that disrupts the mind. Because of the psychedelic ability to affect the mind profoundly and rapidly, the awakening is usually deep and intense, usually accompanied by crazy emotional/energetic release. The problem with psychedelic awakenings is many fold. One, it is only temporary, due to the effect of the substance on the mind. When mind goes back online, consciousness tends to fall back into identification with it. This way, even though it was clear in the trip that no solid or real identity exist anywhere in consciousness, the dream of being a separate self in a world with other objects continues. Second, if the conditions of the trip weren't adequate to fit the tripper (set, settings, dose), the psychedelic induced awakening can be too much for the mind or the body. The tripper might find himself confused, in horror, or just unable to grasp what has happened to him. The trip might even damage the "process" of awakening or transformation. Three, there might be an attachment to psychedelic awakenings, which may cause the practitioner to seek more psychedelic awakenings rather than the recognition of the identity mechanisms that causes seeking and repeated behavior. Psychedelic awakenings should be regarded and considered as serious science of the mind, for all that it implies. This is not to say that psychedelic awakenings are not conducive to enlightenment or transformation. They are probably the best way to divert the regular seeking mind from seeking material objectives to a spiritual "journey", and show us that things are not as solid or identity based as we think. They can also be very useful under the proper conditions to elicit insights on the mind, emotion, body, flow, connection with others, and much more. And they are freaking amazingly powerful just to explore Consciousness. But when it comes to a fixed realization, shattering the illusion of identities or separation, a fixed shift in what consciousness take itself to be, they fall short. This is where spiritual practice comes in, a thorn to take out another thorn. Of course, the same egoic identity traps that hide in seeking psychedelic states/awakenings also lies in spiritual practice, if the identification process latches also to it. So all and all, psychedelics are amazing, and in fact I see them as very direct and intense gurus for initiating the "path". But going back again and again to visit them is no different than going back to an ashram to visit the guru. It is ok if you just want to have fun with your guru, enjoy his company and sit with him. But if you are going back and back again expecting him to wake you up, it is just feeding the seeking mind. People can attend satsang or even meditate for years and not wake up, because they are just satisfying the mind. So it is important to see if this comes from a psychological fixation on some activity or just innocence, honest, play, curiosity, love. It is a matter of clearly seeing what is the motive for what we are doing.

All teachings are conceptual. Even when you share your "insights" (on a daily basis) in this forum, it is completely conceptual. You can't dismiss one branch because it doesn't fit you. Of course that if a teaching is adopted as a belief system it has no value for awakening, but that is true for every teaching. Some resonate with one teaching, others with an other - there is no science to this. If the "teacher" is wise enough, he will give warning to not accept the communication as a belief, or that it is impossible to be grasped by the mind. It is truth that practices can perpetuate the sense of self, because there is a belief that a practice will lead to awakening in the future. But that is false, no practice or process can lead to awakening/enlightenment/realization. Yes, meditation practice can create states of mind because it targets the activity of mind. Other practices are more precisely targeted to reduce the amalgam of identity so that the "probability" for awakening will increase, because at the end it is a matter of identity. But even that does not lead to enlightenment. So neo-advaita is another "school" that provides a different perspective about non-duality or awakening. It should not be taken as a belief system, but as mere pointing to contemplate or take into consideration while inquiring.

Grief is what you pay for attachment. When you "lose" an attachment - and that can be any attachment (physical or mental) - you will experience grief.

I disagree, it depends on who is the therapist. A therapist is really a doctor of mind and emotion. His purpose is to help the patient cope or change mind conditioning, and discover repressed emotion. A therapist is much about opening the biography of the character, usually the most repressed and hidden material. The best way to do this, as a therapist, is with love - being open, non-judgmental towards the patient. The guru's "job" is not to provide love, or fulfill any need of the devotee/student/seeker. The will only make the latter dependent on the guru, like a cult. The role of the guru is to point to Consciousness.

Actually, it would be madness to think that matter is real. Which is why most of the human population are mad and run emok to satisfy their egoic needs, while ignoring the obvious reality that everything they will achieve and collect in life will disappear quite the same like sandcastles. Sounds to me like your still too much in the mind, which is why you feel "mindfucked". That is what the "spiritual journey" does to the seeking mind, especially when it entails tripping. You go on seeking the next trip, the next awakening, the next potent practice. Spiritual seeking isn't different in its essence than other forms of seeking, it is just a deeper mindfuck because it encompasses altered states of consciousness and ridiculous investment of time in sitting in meditation or going to retreats. A spiritual seeking mind can only find relief in practices, tripping, intellectualizing about it with others, listening or reading spiritual discourse. But a temporary, although spiritual, stimuli to the seeking mind will eventually end and so the relief will dissipate with it. When the relief ends, the seeking will return the same any addict looks forward to the next stimuli. This is how you find your self stuck in a self-perpetuating loop of action and thought, that reinforces itself with time and delusion. Moving towards spiritual stimuli is just the last rabbit hole in the matrix of the seeking mind. The point isn't to find satisfaction and happiness by tripping, chasing states of consciousness, sitting endless in meditation, contemplating for days, spending money on retreats or other spiritual consumerism. The point is to awaken to what is already fulfilled and whole. So why embark on a journey to erode the seeking mind by more seeking? it might happen eventually, and then "you" will get it, but that may take a lot of time. Spiritual seeking is exquisitely unique in its mischief, because of the radical states it might produce, and the feeling that you arrived at some new revelation. But, the more profound the satisfaction from the activity of seeking, the deeper the hunger to seek for the next mystical experience will be. One might find himself in an endless journey of chasing states and experiences, and there is no problem with that if it comes from genuine curiosity and exploration rather than seeking. You should be open to the possibility that when the activity of seeking is fully revealed, you will no longer find satisfaction or relief in tripping, practices, or other spiritual endeavors. It is also possible that you will find enjoyment in this activities, but it will be only for the sake of the activity as an expression of our being and the possibility to share it with others to create deep connection.

Without her informed consent, coming to a session while tripping is a bad idea. First, you hide your intention from her which already put you in a place where you know something that is relevant to the meeting but you do not share with her; Second, you haven't checked with her what her boundaries around the matter, which can put her in a dire position - on the one hand, she probably wouldn't allow it in the first place and you breached her boundaries on the other hand, you are already there and she needs to balance between maintaining her boundaries with you and helping you - this is simply unfair position to put her in; Third, inside your self you will know that what you are doing is wrong, and this is enough to collapse the entire purpose of receiving psychotherapy while you are tripping.

Leo, how about considering Ayahuasca? I find that Ayahuasca goes directly to solve the discrepancies we have in the body-mind. Of course it doesn't solve everything, but it is a pretty thorough medicine. It can solve probably most of the issues that there source is in the mind, and I wouldn't be surprised if it can even purify ailments which are purely physical. IMO, most physical ailments source is in the mind. When you drink Ayahuasca, you can literally feel how a specific discord in the mind has manifested as an ailment in the body. That is some crazy high conscious stuff. It is like witchcraft, in a sense. You drink the essence of two forest plants, and than you feel how in the process of raising your consciousness they force you to purify conditioning from the mind and toxins from the body. And, it is a pretty damn strong psychedelic. It resembles the DMT experience in the visual sense, but because of the length of the journey much more is revealed. I know you previously mentioned that you have no intention to trip in such a settings. However, I invite to reconsider this because even though I share the same disposition towards tripping, when it comes to Ayahuasca there is an immense value in the ceremonial setting. I also think that your work around psychedelics is lacking because you have never addressed Ayahuasca.

Tell the truth and love everything/everyone. Easier said than done. Psychedelics can strip off all the illusions accumulated in Consciousness, that are based on the central illusion: separation. How they do it is not important, because it will only be some secondhand explanation to the direct experience of being disillusioned. So yes, you might have some reasonings like "XYZ molecule enters the brain and inhibit the default mode network" or "The spirit of the plant, which vibrates at high frequency because it has no thought and has strong roots to mother earth, raises the vibration of your consciousness". But this are just stories that are trying to explain the experience, and not the direct experiencing of being purified of internal discords.

Under the appropriate conditions, psychedelics can evoke deep healing processes in the psyche. If you are stuck in a closed loop of thinking and emotion, I would suggest to avoid LSD and turn to Psilocybin or Ayahuasca. At least in my case, both Psilocybin and Ayahuasca brings much more of the awareness to the body and out of the mind. LSD indeed enhances visual and auditory sensations, but it can also put the mind on over-drive and hyper-thinking, which isn't suggested when your mindset is low. You can also consider MDMA for healing. Take into your considerations that healing the human psyche can be a long process and usually deeply rooted conditions aren't solved over one trip and complementary contemplation/treatment/tripping might be needed. However, there are no rules to this domain and it is also possible that one trip will bring an end to some conditions. You can never know until you try.

Pleasure is precisely survival. The reward mechanisms of the body are stimulated in response to stimuli that promotes survival and reproduction (sex, food, money, etc.). Unfortunately, humans have learned (consciously or unconsciously) to abuse this apparatus to avoid experience and to satisfy the needs of the self-mind. This is why, for example, a human may continue indulge in snacks even if he is overweight and satiated. This indulgence can obscure (only temporarily) feelings or emotions the individual does not want to experience. This dynamic can show why so many minds are stuck in self-destructing loops. You can also see it when individuals work for long hours to escape other facets of life, or when they are engaging obsessively in sports, or why some individuals chase sex endlessly and fall to addictions such as cigarette or alcohol consumption. Of course, there are many more examples, simple and complex, for this dynamic of mind. So next time you encounter an internal urge to indulge or satisfy the senses in some way, inquire whether or not there is something that is present now that the mind wishes to avoid.

Why would you need a book for that? Isn't it obvious that language is about creating distinctions/labels, and not unifying them? How would a distinction could "grasp" or contain its source, let alone a symbol or a sound?

According to the yogic tradition, the sit of will power is the solar plexus, not the "3rd eye" which corresponds with perception, intuition, thought. So you can try whatever Osho suggest and see if the works for you. My suggestion is to find the mental activity (beliefs/thoughts/memories) that disrupts your willpower, and let go of it. IMO, this is more direct than trying to find it through the body. So how about asking your self, what diminishes your willpower and what inhibits you from realizing it?

It is clear that sounds and symbols are just what they are. Language is seen to be the ability of the mind to take sounds and symbols and make of them something they are not (project meaning or reference). It is reasonable that you are more sensitive and listen more deeply to other communications when you are less mind identified. When we believe our minds it is like being under hypnosis, and in the context of communicating with others, the mind will project its own meaning to others communications and you will be less sensitive to their emotions and other nuances in their communication.

When you say "I am", who do you refer to?